McClure Joins Extension as Farm Management Analytics Educator

The new Extension Educator for Farm and Ranch Management Analytics is Nebraska native Glennis McClure. She joined the Department of Agricultural Economics in late November, filling a position previously held by Roger Wilson, who retired in 2016.

With a 100% appointment in Nebraska Extension, her responsibilities will be to further develop an Extension program in farm and ranch management analytics, including publishing all livestock and crop enterprise budgets, surveying and publishing the Farm Custom Rates Guide, and assisting with special economic analyses as requested.

“I’ll be working with Nebraska Extension professionals and farm and ranch managers across the state to continue gathering information on crop and livestock budgets and the custom rates information that has been helpful to many historically,” she said. “I’ll be working with professors and specialists on innovative ways to educate, disseminate, and utilize the information from the budgets.”

“We’re currently working on getting the custom rates survey out across Nebraska. Any farm or ranch operator who does custom work in their area can participate in the custom rates survey which is done every two years,” she said. (See story in this week’s CropWatch on how custom operators can contribute to the survey.) After information is compiled from the surveys (first half of 2018), an updated report will be published showing average rates and most common rates charged for specific machinery operations in various regions of Nebraska.

McClure has extensive background as a farm business partner on a grain and livestock farm in Gage County and as a farm business consultant and agricultural educator in southeast Nebraska.

“Both my husband Ed and I were ag economics majors and went back to the family farm with Ed making a career of operating /managing the farm. We currently produce breeding stock poultry in a cage-free, state-of-the-art on-farm facility,” she said.

A University of Nebraska alumna, McClure received a BS in agricultural economics with a business management option and an MA in adult and continuing education with an emphasis in human resource development and training.

After leaving NFBA, McClure taught and worked on various projects in the agribusiness program at Southeast Community College in Beatrice for 10 years. She has focused much of her career in assisting rural entrepreneurs and small businesses with planning and financing resources. She co-directed the REAP Program for the Center for Rural Affairs and while there was the first director of the Women’s Business Center. She also served two years as the Senior Community Affairs Advisor for the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in the Omaha branch and later became vice president of the Nebraska Enterprise Fund, where once again, her work was focused on small business development and financing.

The last few years, McClure has been focused on economic development in Gage County, serving as a charter member of the Board of Directors of the Gage Area Growth Enterprise (NGage) when it was formed in 2012 and later as its executive director.

When asked why she chose to pursue her life’s work in agricultural economics, she said, “I was raised on a diversified family farm and love all aspects of agriculture. I realized early on that Nebraska’s #1 industry is farming and ranching and I wanted to be a part of it. With a natural affinity to work with numbers and data, I was attracted to learning about how agriculture meshed with the overall economy. I have focused on the business management aspect and am passionate about helping farmers and ranchers understand their costs and profitability potential.”

McClure can be contacted in the Department of Agricultural Economics at 402-472-0661 or gmcclure3@unl.edu.